The present invention is generally related to the fields of telephony and of customer contact managers, and, more particularly, is related to a system and method for normalizing a non-standard computer telephony interface (CTI) event output from a private exchange in a call center.
Many companies, governmental agencies, and other organizations provide various customer support functions relative to their activities. For example, companies typically sell products or services to consumers or other entities that require continued direction involvement by the Company to facilitate the effective use of the product or service by the consumer. Likewise, governmental agencies or other similar organizations may have to provide instructions to citizens who seek to satisfy their obligations to the organizations. These support functions often result in a centralized or distributed support organization that can be contacted by consumers who seek help with regard to the product or service in question.
These centralized or distributed support organizations may often be established as a call center. A call center may include a number of agents who are linked via a private telephone network or private exchange (PBX) that will handle multiple calls from various consumers and answer questions and provide service and support. Typically, these agents record the nature and substance of their activities with regard to individual consumers to create a record of the exchange for legal purposes and for other reasons.
More recently, data processing systems and computer networks are employed in call centers to aid in the exchanges between the agents and the consumers. For example, there is a desire in many call centers that the same agent handle repeated calls by the same consumer so that the agent can most efficiently handle a problem since the agents is aware of the call history. In addition, there is a desire to keep a record of all calls from a particular consumer on the database so that those records can be easily recalled and examined by the agent in question or can be examined by new agent who can then be appraised of a particular ongoing crisis or problem. The data processing systems and computer networks also facilitate displaying the records of a particular consumer on a screen of an agent that deals with the particular consumer. Also, there is a desire that calls by consumers are answered quickly so that consumers do not wait on hold for unreasonable amounts of time, thereby discouraging the consumer from obtaining the needed service and support.
The private exchanges in the call centers often provide information relative to the particular consumer calling as well as other information relative to the state of the telephone system in the call center. However, there are several different makes of private exchanges available on the market and each one generally employs its own communications protocol with which to interface with the data processing systems and computer networks of call centers. This results in significant difficulty in interfacing the data processing systems and computer networks with the various private exchanges to facilitate the flow of data on the computer network based upon the telephony activity within the call center.
The present invention provides a system and method for generating standardized events from non-standard computer telephony interface (CTI) events generated by various private exchanges or telephone switches made by various manufacturers. In one embodiment, the system of the present invention includes a processor coupled to a local interface, a memory coupled to the local interface with normalization logic stored in the memory, the normalization logic being executed by the processor. The normalization logic generates a number of normalized events relative to the operation of a call center based upon non-standard CTI events received from the specific private exchange employed. In this regard, the normalization logic includes event normalization logic to generate at least one normalized event from a non-standard CTI event. The normalization logic also includes information normalization logic to add a missing amount of information to the normalized event, thereby generating an information normalized event, and temporal normalization logic to generate at least one missing normalized event upon detecting an out of sequence information normalized event.
In other embodiments, the normalization logic may be implemented in hardware, software, firmware, or a combination thereof. One hardware implementation includes, for example, a dedicated logical circuit comprised of a network of logical gates and other components.
The present invention can also be viewed as providing a method for generating standardized events from non-standard CTI events generated by various private exchanges or telephone switches made by various manufacturers. In this regard, the method can be broadly summarized by the following steps: generating at least one normalized event from a non-standard CTI event; adding a missing amount of information to at least one normalized event, thereby generating an information normalized event; and generating at least one missing normalized event upon detecting an out of sequence information normalized event.
The present invention provides a distinct advantage in that it allows an optimum logical structure to convert non-standard CTI events from various private exchanges (PBXs) into normalized events that can then be employed in the efficient operation of a call center. Thus, the computer network software that controls the flow of information and interworkings within a computer call center can easily adapt to the non-standard CTI protocol of any PBX. In addition, the normalized protocol facilitates call-contact data correlation among multiple call centers.
Other features and advantages of the present invention will become apparent to one with skill in the art upon examination of the following drawings and detailed description. It is intended that all such additional features and advantages be included herein within the scope of the present invention.